HAMILTON — Brandon Cray had few expectations when he arrived in Steinert High’s wrestling room for his freshman season. Basically, he just wanted to work hard and see what happened.

The result has been winning – a lot of winning.

Cray captured the Mercer County Tournament championship at 106 pounds over the weekend and followed up that performance with a pin Wednesday night as the Spartans won 74-6 over an undermanned Notre Dame squad.

With the victory, Steinert improved to 13-4 overall and 10-1 in the Colonial Valley Conference and wrapped up a fifth consecutive division title.

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Cray is 22-2 this season, splitting his time between 106 and 113. His losses have come against Camden Catholic’s Tyler McBride, a returning state place-winner, and in overtime to Toms River South’s Owen McClave, who is 28-2 this season.

“When I got in here, I just wanted to wrestle the way I wanted to wrestle and whatever the outcome, that’s how it would be,” Cray said. “It’s not hard staying motivated. I want to win. I work hard enough that I can win. That’s how it is.”

Cray’s father, Todd, was a standout at Nottingham in the mid-1980s and team MVP one season.

“He gives me training and keeps me motivated; he’s just like my guide,” Cray said. “The more you wrestle, the more comfortable you are on the mat. I’m just working to win.”

Steinert coach Adam Jankos expects big things from the diminutive freshman as the season ends toward the year-end tournaments.

“He’s right at the top and I think he could do very well at regions and states,” Jankos said. “I think he could take control of the postseason. He has the talent. I know he’s a freshman and there’s a lot of pressure on him, but I see him doing great things.”

Cray’s pin last night was one of six for the Spartans, who also received five forfeits from Notre Dame. Joining Cray in getting pins were Nate Benitez (120), Joe Paragone (138), Sean Augustyn (145), Alex Rubio (152) and Austin Van Cleaf (182). Anthony Kubish (160) won by technical fall.

“We wanted to get five consecutive division titles, so we were pretty pumped up,” Paragone said after the Spartans claimed another Colonial Division crown. “We’ve done amazing. We lost our first two matches (of the season), but we knew we’d come out of the funk and finish out strong.”

The Irish (15-7, 6-4) sat several of their top wrestlers because of the state’s 30-match limitation prior to the year-end tournaments. Stefanos Karpontinis and Justin Daisey, who were third-place finishers in the MCT, as well as fourth-place Zach Hankinson were among those on the sideline.

“Match limits and the flu,” Notre Dame coach Darren Basich said. “They backed the season up a week and we weren’t ready for that as far as match limits and we got caught.”